SOLDIERS*  TRACT  ASSOCIATION,  \  No.  64, 

Richmond,  Va.  i 


OUR  DANGER  AND  OUR  DUTY. 


BY  REV.  J.  H.  THORNWELL,  D.  D. 


HE,    BEING    DEAD,    YET    SPEAKETH. 


The  ravages  of  Louis  XlV.  in  the  beautiful  valleys  of  the 
Rhine,  about  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century,  may  be 
taken  as  a  specimen  of  the  appalling  desolation  which  is  likely 
to  overspread  the  Confederate  States,  if  the  Northern  army 
should  succeed  iu  its  schemes  of  subjugation  and  of  plunder. 
Europe  was  .then  outraged  by  atrocities  inflicted  by  Chris- 
tians upon  Christians,  more  fierce  and  cruel  than  even  Ma- 
hometans could  have  had  the  heart  to  perpetrate.  Private 
dwellings  were  razed  to  the  ground,  fields  laid  waste,  cities 
burnt,  churches  demolished,  and  the  fruits  of  industry  wan- 
tonly and  ruthlessly  destroyed-  But  three. days  of  grace  were 
allowed  to  Ihe  wretched  inhabitants  to  flee  their  oountry,  and 
in  a  short  time,  the  historian  tells  us,  "  the  roads  and  fields, 
which  then  lay  deep  in  snow,  were  blackened  by  innumerable 
multitudes  of  men,  women  and  children,  flying  from  their 
homes.  Many  died  of  cold  and  hunger;  but  enough  survived 
to  fill  the  streets  of  all  the  cities  of  Europe  with  lean  and 

lalid  beggars,  who  bad  once  been  thriving  farmers  and  bfcop* 
keepers."  And  what  have  we  to  expect  i:  our  enemies  pre* 
■*«£?  •  Our  homes*  ty*$  we  to  b©  piUagggpamr  <£&»  .-Metal. 
1 


2  Our  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

and  demolished,  our  property  confiscated,  our  true  men  hanged, 
and  those  who  escape  the  gibbet,  to  be  driven  as  vagabonds 
and  wanderers  in  foreign  climes.  This  beautiful  country  is  to 
pass  out  of  our  hands.  The  boundaries  which  mark  our 
States  are,  in  some  iustances,  to  be  effaced,  and  the  States- 
that  remain  are  to  be  converted  into  subject  provinces,  gov- 
erned by  Northern  rulers  and  by  Northern  laws.  Our  pro- 
perty is  to  be  ruthlessly  seized  and  turned  over  to  mercenary 
strangers,  in  order  to  pay  the  enormous  debt  which  our  subju- 
gation has  cost.  Omr  wives  and  daughters  are  to  become  the 
prey  of  brutal  lust.  The  slave,  too,  will  slowly  pass  away,  as 
the  red  man  did  before  him,  under  the  protection  of  Northern 
philanthropy;  and  the  whole  country,  now  like  the  garden  of 
Eden  in  beauty  and  fertility,  will  first  be  a  blackened  and 
smoking  desert,  aud  then  the  minister  of  Northern  cupidity 
and  avarice.  Our  history  will  be  worse  than  that  of  Poland 
and  Hungary.  There  is  not  a  single  redeeming  feature  in 
the  picture  of  ruin  which  stares  us  in  the  face,  if  we  permit 
ourselves  to  be  conquered.  It  is  a  night  of  thick  darkness 
that  will  settle  upon  us.  Even  sympathy,  the  last  solace  of 
the  afflicted,  will  be  denied  to  us.  The  civilized  world  will 
look  coldly  upon  us,  or  even  jeer  us  with  the  taunt  that  we 
have  deservedly  lost  our  own.  freedom  in  seeking  to  perpetuate 
the  slavery  of  others.  We  shall  perish  under  a  cloud  of  re- 
pToach  and  of  unjust  suspicions,  sedulously  propagated  by  our 
enemies,  which  will  be  harder  to  bear  than  the  loss  of  homo 
and  of  goods.  Such  a  fate  never  overtook  any  people  before. 
The  case  is  as  desperate  with  our  enemies  as  with  ourselves. 
They. must. succeed  or.  perish.  They  must  conquer  us  or  be 
destroyed  themselves..  If  they  fail,  national  bankruptcy  stares 
them  in  the  face;  divisions  in  their  own  ranks  are  inevitable, 
*ad  tbeir  ^cwsnmient _will  fall  to  pieces  uader  the  weight  of 


Our  Danger  and  our  Duty.  •  3 

its  own  corruption.  They  know  that  they  are  a  doomed  peo- 
ple if  they  are  defeated.  Hence  their  madness.  They  must 
have  our  property  to  save  them  from  insolvency.  They  must 
show  that  the  Union  cannot  bo  dissolved,  to  save  them  from 
future  secessions.  The  parties,  therefore,  in  this  conflict  can 
make  no  compromises.  It  is  a  matter  of  life  and  death  with 
both — a  struggle  in  which  their  all  is  involved. 

But  the  consequences  of  success  on  our  part  will  be  very 
different  from  tne  consequences  of  success  on  the  part  of  the 
North.  If  they  prevail,  the  whole  character  of  the  govern- 
ment will  be  changed,  and  instead  of  a  federal  republic,  the 
common  agent  of  sovereign  and  independent  States,  we  shall 
have  a  central  despotism,  with  the  notion  of  States  for  ever 
abolished,  deriving  its  powers  from  the  will,  and  shaping  its 
policy  according  to  the  wishes  of  a  numerical-  majority  of  the 
people;  wc  shall  have,  in  other  words,  a  supreme,  irresponsi- 
ble democracy.  The  will  of  the  North  will  stand  for  law. 
The  government  does  not  now  recognize  itself  as  an  ordinance 
of  God,  and  when  all  the  checks  and  balances  of  the  Consti- 
tution are  gone,  we  may  easily  figure  to  ourselves  the  career 
and  the  destiny  of  this  godless  monster  of  democratic  abso- 
lutism. The  progress  of  regulated  liberty  on  this  continent 
will  be  arrested,  anarchy  will  soon  succeed,  and  the  end  will 
be-  a  military  despotism^ which  preserves  order  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  last  vestige  of  liberty.  We  are  fully  persuaded 
that  the  triumph  of  the  North  in  the  present  conflict  will  be 
as  disastrous  to  the  hopes  of  mankind  as  to  our  own  fortunes. 
'They  are  now  fighting  the  battle  of  despotism.  They  have 
put  their  Constitution  under  their  feet ;  they  have  annulled 
its  most  sacred  provisions )  and  in  defiance  of  its  solemn  guar- 
anties, they  are  now  engaged,  in  the  halls  of  Congress,  in  dis- 
cussing and  maturing  bills  which  make  -Northern  notions  of 


4         •  Our  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

necessity  the  paramount  lawo  of  the  land.  The  avowed  end 
of  the  present  war  is  to  make  the  government  a  government 
of  force.  It  is  to  settle  the  principle  that,  whatever  may  be 
its  corruptions  and  abuses,  however  unjust  and  tyrannical  its 
legislation,  there  i.s  no  redress,  except  in  vain  petition  or 
empty  remonstrance.  It  was  as  a  protest  against  this  princi- 
ple, which  sweeps  away  the  last  security  for  liberty,  that  Vir- 
ginia, North  Carolina,  Tennessee  and  Missouri  seceded,  and  if 
the  government  should  be  re-established,  it  must  be  re-estab- 
lished with  this  feature  of  remorseless  despotism  firmly  and 
indelibly  fixed.  The  future  fortunes  of  our  children,  and  of 
this  continent,  would  then  be  determined  by  a  tyranny  which 
has  no  parallel  in  history. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  are  struggling  for  constitutional  free- 
dom. We  are  upholding  the  great  principles  which  our  fathers 
bequeathed  us,  and  if  we  should  succeed,  and  become,  as  we 
shall,  the  dominant  nation  of  this  continent,  we  shall,  perpetu- 
ate and  diffuse  the  very  liberty  for  which  Washington  bled, 
and  which  the  heroes  of  the  Revolution  achieved.  We  are 
not  revolutionists — we  are  resisting  revolution.  We  are  up- 
holding the  true  doctrines  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  We 
are  conservative.  Our  success  is  the  triumph  of  all  that  has 
been  considered  established  in  the  past.  We  can  never  be  ag- 
gressive; we  may  absorb,  but  we  can  never  invade,  for  con- 
quest, any  neighboring  State.  The  peace  of  the  world  is 
secured  if  our  arms  prevail.  We  shall  have  a  government 
that  acknowledges  God,  that  reverences  right,  and  that  makes 
law  supreme.  We  are,  therefore,  fighting  not  for  ourselves 
alone,  but,  when  the  struggle  is  rightly  understood,  for  the 
salvation  of  the  whole  continent.  It  is  a  noblo  cause  in  which 
we  are  engaged.  There  is  everything  in  it  to  rouse  the  heart 
&ad  to  ij^rve  the  arm  of  the  freeing  and  the  patriot ;  and 


Our  Danger  and  gut  Duty. 

though'it  may  now  seem  to  be  under  a  cloud,  it  is  too  bio:  with 
the  future,  of  our  race  to  be  suffered  to  fail.  It  cannot  fail; 
it^nust  not  fail.  Our  people  mu>t  not  brook  the  infamy  of 
betraying  their  sublime  trust.  This  beautiful  land  we  must 
never  suffer  to  pass  into  the  hantis  of  strangers.  Our  fields, 
our  homes,  our  firesides  and  sepulchres,  our  cities  and  tem- 
ples, our  wives  and  daughters,  we  must  protect  at  every  haz- 
ard. The  glorious  inheritance  which  our  fathers  left  us  we 
must  never  betray.  The  hopes  with  which  they  died,  and 
which  buoyed  their  spirits  in  the  last  conflict,  of  making  their 
country  a  blessing  to  the  world,  we  must  not  permit  to  be  un- 
realized. We  must  seize  the  torch  from  their  hands,  and 
transmit  it  with  increasing  brightness  to  distant  generations. 
The  word  failure  must  not  be  pronounced  among  us.  It  is 
a  thing  not  to  be  dreamed  of.  We  must  settle  it  that  we 
must  succeed.  We  must  not  sit  down  to  count  chances. 
There  is  too  much  at  stake  to  think  of  discussing  probabili- 
ties— we  must  make  success  a;-  certainty,  and  that,  by  the 
blessing  of  God,  we  can  do.  If  we  are  prepared  to  do  our 
duty,  and  our  whole  duty,  we  have  nothing  to  fear.  But 
what  is  our  duty?  This  is  a  question  which  we  must 
gravely  consider.     We  shall  briefly  attempt  to  answer  it. 

In  the  first  place,  we  must  *shake  off  all  apathy,  and  be. 
come  fully  alive  to  the  magnitude  of  the  crisis.  We  must 
look  the  danger  in  the  face,  and  comprehend  the  real  gran- 
deur of  the  issue.  We  shall  not  exert  ourselves  until  we  are 
sensible  of  the  need  of  effort.  As  long  as  we  cherish  a  vague 
hope  that  help  may  come  from  abroad,  or  that  there  is  some- 
thing in  our  past  history,  or  the  genius  of  our  institutions,  to 
protect  us  from  overthrow,  we  are  hugging  a  fatal  delusion  to 
our  bosoms.  This  apathy  was  the  ruin  of  Greece  at  the  time 
oLthe  Macedonian  invasion.     This  was  the  spell  which  De- 


Our  banger  and  our  Duty. 

mosthcnes  labored  so  earnestly  to  break.  The  Athenian  was 
as  devoted  as  ever  to  his  native  city  and  the  free  institutions 
he  inherited  from  his  father?;  but  somehow  or  other  he  could 
not  believe  that  his  country  could  be  conquered.  He  read  its 
safety  in  its  ancient  glory.  He  felt  that  it  had  a  prescriptive 
right  to  live.  The  great  orator  saw  and  lamented  the  error; 
he  poured  forth  his  eloquence  to  dissolve  the  charm;  but  the 
fatal  hour  had  come,  aod  the  spirit  of  Greece  could  not  be 
roused..  There  was  no  more  real  patriotism  at  the  time  of 
the  second  Persian  invasion  than  in  the  age  of  Philip;  but 
then  there  was  no  apathy,  every  man  appreciated  the  danger; 
he' saw  the  crash  that  was  coming,  and  prepared  himself  to 
resist  the  blow.  He  knew  that  there  was  no  safety  except  in  , 
courage,  and  in  desperate  effort.  Every  man,  too,  felt  ideni 
tified  with  the  State;  a  part  of  its  weight  rested  on  his  shoul- 
ders. Ifrwas  this  sense  of  personal  interest  and  personal  .re- 
sponsibility— the  profound  conviction  that  every  one  had  some- 
thing to  do,  and  that  Greece  Expected  him  to  do  it— this  was 
'the  public  spirit  which  turned  back  the  countless  hordes  of 
Xerxes,  and  saved  Greece  to  liberty  and  man.  This  is  the 
spirit  which  we  must  have,  if  we,  too,  would  succeed.  We 
must  be  brought  to  see  that  all,  under  God,  depends  on,  our- 
selves'; and,  looking  away  from  all  foreign  alliances,  we  mupt 
make  up  our  minds  to  fight  desperately,  and  fight  long,  if  we. 
would  save  tbe  country  from  ruin,  and  ourselves  from  bond- 
age. Every  man  should  feel  that  he  has  an  interest  in  the 
State,  and  that  the  State  in  a  measure  leans  upon  him  ;  and  he 
should  rouse  himself  to  efforts  as  bold  and  heroic  as  if  all  de- • 
pended  on  his  single  right  arm.  Our  courage  should  rise 
higher  than  the  danger,  and  whatever  may  be  the  odds  against 
us,  we  must  solemnly  resolve,  by  God's  blessing,  that  we  will 
not  be  conquered.     When,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  dan- 


Our  Danger  and  our  Duty.  ? 

ger,  we  are  brought  to  this  point,  we  are  in  the  way  of  deliv* 
erance;  but  until  this  point  is  reached,  it  is  idle  to  count  oil 
success. 

It  is  implied  in  the  spirit  which  the  times  demand,  that  all 
private' interests  are  sacrificed  to  the  public  good.  The  State 
becomes  everything,  and  the  individual  nothing.  It  is  no 
time  to  be  casting  about  for  expedients  to  enrich  ourselves. 
The  man  who  is  now  intent  upon  money,  who  turns  public 
necessity  and  danger  into  means  of  speculation,  would,  if 
very  shame  did  not  rebuke  him,  and  he  were  allowed  to  fol- 
low the  natural  bent  of  his  heart,  go  upon  the  field  of  battle 
after  an  engagement,  and  strip  the  lifeless  bodies-  of  his  brave 
countrymen  of  the  few  spoils  they  carried  into  the  fight. 
Such  men,  unfit  for.  anything  generous  or  noble  themselves, 
like  the  hyena,  can  only  suck  the  blood  of  the  lion".  It  ought 
to  be  a  reproach  to  any  man,  that  he  is  growing  rich  while  his 
country  is  bleeding  at  every  pore.  If  we  had  a  Themistocles 
among  us,  he  would  not  scruple  to  charge  the  miser  and  ex- 
tortioner with  stealing  the  Gorgon's  head;  he  would  search 
their  stuff,  and  if  he  could  not  find  that,  he  would  find  what 
would  answer  his  country's  needs  much  more  effectually. 
This  spirit  must  be  rebuked ;  every  man  must  forget  himself, 
and  think  only  of  the  public  good. 

The  spirit  of  faction  is  even  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the 
spirit  of  avarice  and  plunder.  It  is  equally  selfish,  and  is, 
besides,  distracting  and  divisive/  The  man  who  now  labors 
to  weaken  the  hands  of  the  g^ernment,  that  he  may  seize 
the  reins  of  authority,  or  cavils  at  public  measures  and  policy, 
that  he  may  rise  to  distinction  and  office,  has  all  the  selfish- 
ness of  a  miser,  and  all  the  baseness  of  a  traitor.  Our  rulers 
are  not  infallible:  but  their  errors  are  to  be  reviewed  with 
candor,  and  their  authority  sustained  with  unanimity.     What- 


$  Our  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

ever  has  a  tendency  to  destroy  public  confidence  iu  their  pru- 
dence, their. wisdom,  their  energy  and  their  patriotism,  under- 
mines the  security  of  our  cause.  We  must  not  be  divided 
and  distracted  among  ourselves.  Our  rulers  have  great  re- 
sponsibilities; they  need  the  support  of  the  whole  country; 
and  nothing  short  of  a  patriotism  which  buries  all  private 
differences,  which  is  ready  for  compromises  and  concessions, 
which  can  make  charitable  allowances  for  differences  of  opin- 
ion, and  even  for  errors  of  judgment,  can  save  us  from  the 
consequences  of  party  and  faction.  We  must  be  united.  If 
our  views  are  not  carried  out,  let  us  sacrifice  private  opinion 
to  public  safety.  In  the  great  conflict  with  Persia,  Athens 
yielded  to  Sparta,  and  acquiesced  in  plans  .she  could  not  ap- 
prove, for  the  sake  of  the  public  good.  Nothing  could  bo 
more  dangerous  now  than  scrambles  for  office  and  power,  and 
collisions  among  the  different  departments  of  the  government. 
We  must  present  a  united  front. 

It  is  further  important  that  every  man  should  be  ready  to 
work.  It  is  no  time  to  play  the  gentleman ;  no  time  for  dig- 
nified leisure.  All  cannot  serve  in  the  field ;  but  all  can  do 
something  to  help  forward  the  common  cause.  -The  young 
and  the  active,  the  stout  and  vigorous,  should  be  prepared  at 
a  moment's  warning  for  the  ranks.  The  disposition  should  be 
one  of  eagerness  to  be  employed;  there  should  be  no  holding 
back,  no  counting  the  cost.  The  man  who  stands  back  from 
the  ranks  in  these  perilous  times,  because  he  is  unwilling  to 
serve  his  country  as  a  private  soldier,  who  loves  his  ease  more 
than  liberty,  his  luxuries  more  than  his  honor,  that  man  is  a 
dead  fly  in  our  precious  ointment.  In  seasons  of  great  ca- 
lamity, the  ancient  pagans,  were  accustomed  to  appease  the 
anger  of  their  gods  by  human  sacrifices;  and  if  they  had  gone 
upon  the  principle  of  selecting  those  whose  moral  iusignifi- 


Our  Danger  and  our  Buiy.  9 

canoe  rendered  them  alike  offensive  to  Heaven  and  useless  to 
earth,  they  would  always  have  selected  these  drones,  and  loaf- 
ers, and  exquisites.  A  Christian  nation  cannot  offer  them  in 
sacrifice,  but  public  contempt  should  whip  them  from  their 
lurking  holes,  and  compel  them  to  share  the  common  danger. 
The  community  that  will  cherish  such  men  without  rebuke, 
brings  "down  wrath  upon  it.  They  must  be  forced  to  be  use- 
ful, to  avert  the  judgments  of  God  from  the  patrons  of  cow- 
ardice and  meanness. 

Public  spirit  will  not  have  reached  the  height  which  the 
exigency  demands,  until  we  shall  have  relinquished  all  fastid- 
ious notions  of  military  etiquette,  and  have  come  to  the  point 
of  expelling  the  enemy  by  any  and  every  means  that  God  has 
put  in  our  power.  We  are  not  fighting  for  military  glory; 
we  are  fighting  for  a  home,  and  for  a  national  existence.  We 
are  not  aiming  to  display  our  skill  in  tactics  and  generalship; 
we  are  aimiag  to  show  ourselves  a  free  people,  worthy  to  pos- 
sess and  able  to  defend  the  institutions  of  our  fathers.  What 
signifies  it  to  us  how  the  foe  is  vanquished,  provided  it  is 
done?  Because  we  have  not  weapons  of  the  most  approved, 
workmanship,  are  we  to  sit  still  and  see  our  soil  overrun,  and 
our  wives  and  children  driven  from  their  homes,  while  we 
have  in  our  hands  other  weapons  that  can  equally  do  the  work 
of  death  ?  Are  we  to  perish  if  we  cannot  conquer  by  the 
technical  rales  of  scientific  warfare?  Are  we  to  sacrifice  our 
country  to  military  punctilio?  The  thought  is  monstrous. 
We  must  be  prepared  to  extemporize  expedients.  We  must 
cease  to  be  chary,  either  about  our  weapons  or  the  means  of 
using  them.  The  end  is  to  drive  back  our  foes.  If  we  can- 
not procure  the  host  rifle*,  let  us  put  up  with  the  common 
guns  of  the  country;  if  "they  canuot  be*  had,  with  pikes,  and 
axes,  and  tomahawks;  anything  that  will  do  the  work  of  death 


10  Our  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

is  an  effective  instrument  in  a  brave  mane's  hand.  We  should 
be  ready  for  the  regular  battle  or  the  partisan  skirmish.  If 
we  are  too  weak  to  stand  an  engagement  in  the  open  field,  we 
can  waylay  the  foe,  and  harass  and  annoy  him.  We  must 
prepare  ourselves  for  a  guerilla  war.  The  enemy  must  be 
conquered;  and  any  method  by  which  we  can  honorably  do  it 
must  be  resorted  to.  This  is  the  kind  of  spirit  which  we 
want  to  see  aroused  among  our  people.  With  this  spirit,  they 
will  never  be  subdued*  If  driven  from  the  plains,  they  will 
retreat  to  the  mountains;  if  beaten  in  the  field;  the}'  will  hide 
in  swamps  and  marshes,  and  when  their  enemies  are  least  ex- 
pecting it,  they  will  pounce  down  upon  them  in  the  dashing 
exploits  of  a  Sumter,  a  Marion,  a  J)avie.  It  is  only  when  we 
have  reached  this  point  that  public  spirit  is  commensurate 
with  the  danger. 

In  the  second"  place,  we  must  guard  sacredly  against  cher- 
ishing a  temper  of  presumptuous  confidence.  The  cause  is 
not  ours,  but  God's;  and  if  we  measure  its  importance  only 
by  its  accidental  relation  to  ourselves,  we  may  be  suffered  to 
perish  for  our  pride.  No  nation  ever  yet  achieved  anything 
great  that  did  not  regard  itself  as  the  instrument  of  Provi- 
dence. The  only  lasting  inspiration  of  lofty  patriotism  and 
exalted  courage  is  the  inspiration  of  religion.  The  Greeks 
and  Romans  never  ventured  upon  any  important  enterprise 
without  consulting  their  gods.  They  felt  that  they  were  safe 
only  as  they  were  persuaded  that  they  were  in  alliance  with 
heaven.  Man,  though  limited  in  space,  limited  in  time  and 
limited  in  knowledge,  is  truly  great,  w|ien  he  is  linked  to  the 
Infinite  as  the  means  of  accomplishing  lasting  ends.  To  be 
God's  servant,  that  is#his  highest  destiny,  his  sublimest  call- 
ing. Nations  are  under  the  pupilage  of  Providence;  they  are 
in  training  themselves,  that  they  may  be  the  instruments  of 
furthering  the  progress  of  the  human  race. 


Our  Danger  and  our  Duty.  11 

Polybius,  tho  historian,  traces  the  secret  of  Roman  great- 
ness to  the.  profound  sense  of  religion  which  constituted  a 
striking  feature  of  the  national  character.  ITe  calls  it,  ex- 
pressly, the  firmest  pillar  of  the  Roman  State;  and  he  does 
not  hesitate  to  denounce,  as  enemies  to  public  order  and  pros- 
perity, those  of  his  own  contemporaries  who  sought  to  under- 
mine the  sacredness  of  these  convictions.  Even  Napoleon 
sustained  his  vaulting  ambition  by  a  mysterious  connection 
with  the  invisible  world.  He  was  a  man  of  destiny.  It  is 
the  relation  to  God,  and  His  providential  training  of  the  race, 
that  imparts  true  dignity  to  our  struggle;  and  we  must  recog- 
nize ourselves  as  God's  servants,  world eg  out  His  glorious 
ends,  or  we  shall  be  left  infallibly  to  stumble  upon  the  darlj 
mountains  of  error.  Our  trust  in  Him  must  be  the  real 
spring  of  our  heroic  resolution  to  conquer  or  to  die.-  A  senti- 
ment of  honor,  a  momentary  enthusiasum,  may  prompt  and 
sustain  spasmodic  exertions  of  aji  extraordinary  character; 
but  a  steady  valor,  a  self-denying  patriotism,  protracted  pa- 
tience, a  readiness  to'  do,  and  dare,  and  suffer,  through  a  gen- 
eration or  an  age — this  comes  only  from  a  sublime  faith  in 
God.  The  worst  symptom  that  any  people  can  manifest,  is 
tfiat  of  pride.  With  nations,  as  with  individuals,  it  goes  be- 
fore a  fall.  Let  us  guard  against  ij.  Let  us  rise  to  the  true 
grandeur  of  our  calliug,  and  go  forth  as  servants  of  the  Most 
High,  to  execute  His  purposes.  In  4his  spirit  we  are  safe. 
By  this  spirit  our  principles  are  ennobled,  and  our  cause  trans- 
lated from  earth  to  Heaven.  An  overweening  confidence  in 
the  righteousness  of  our  cause,  as  if  that  alone  were  sufficient- 
to  insure  our  success,  betrays  gross  inattention  to  the  Divine 
dealings  with  communities  and  States.  In  the  issue  betwixt 
ourselves  and  our  enemies,  we  may  be  free  from  blame;  but 
there  may  be  other  respects. in  which  we  have  provoked  the 
judgments  of  Heaven,  and   there   may  be  other  grounds  on 


li  (jar  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

which  God  has  a  controversy  with  us,  and  the  swords  of  our 
enemies  may  be  His  chosen  instruments  to  execute  His  wrath. 
He  may  first  use  them  as  a  rod,  and  then  punish  them  in 
other  forms  for  their  own  iniquities.  Hence,  it  behooves  us 
not  only  to  have  a  religious  cause,  but  to  be  a  righteous  peo- 
ple. We  must  abandon  all  our  sins,  and  put  ourselves  heartily  . 
and  in  earnest  on  the  side  of  Providence. 

Hence,  this  dependence  upon  Providence  carries  with  it  the 
necessity  of  removing  from  the  midst  of  us  whatever  is  offen- 
sive t)  a  holy  God.  If  the  government  is  His  ordinance,  and 
the  people  His  instruments,  they\nust  see  to  it  that  they  serve 
Him  with  no  unwashed  or  defiled  hands"  We  must  cultivate 
a  high  standard  of  public  virtue.  We  must  renounce  all  per- 
sonal and  selfish  aims,  and  we  must  rebuke  every  custom  or 
institution  that  tends  to  deprave  their  public  morals.  Virtue 
is  power,  and  vice  is  weakness.  The  same  PolybiuS)  to  whom 
we  have  already  referred,  traces  the  influence  of  the  religious 
sentiment  at  Rome  in  producing  faithful  and  incorruptible 
magistrates,  who  were  strangers  alike  to  bribery  and  favor  in 
executing  the  laws  and  dispensing  the' trusts  of  the  State,  and 
'that  high  tone  of  public  faith  which  made  au  oath  an  absolute 
security  for  faithfulness.  This  stern  simplicity  of  manned 
we  must  cherish,  if  we  hope  to  succeed.  Bribery,  corrup- 
tion, favoritism,- electioneering,  flattery,  and  every  species  of 
double-dealing;  drunkenness,  profaneness,  debauchery,  sel- 
fish wess,  avarice  and  extortion ;  all  base  material  ends  must 
be  banished  by  a  stern  integrity,  if  we  Would  become  the  fit 
instruments  of  a  holy  Providence  in  a  holy  cause.  Sin  is  a 
reproach  to  any  poople.  It  is  weakness;  it  is  sure,  though  it 
may  be  slow,  decay.  Faith  in  God — that  is  the  watchword  of 
martyrs,  whether  in  the  cause  of  truth  or  of  liberty.  That 
alone  ennobles  and  sanctifies. 


Our  Danger  and  our  Duty.  13 

"  All  ether  nations/'  except  the  French,  as  Burkec  has  sig- 
nificantly remarked,  in  relation  to  the  memorable  revolution 
.which  was  doomed  to  failure  in  consequence  of  this  capital 
omission,. "have  begun  the  fabric  of  a  new  government,  or 
the  reformation  of  an  old,  by  establishing  originally,  or  by 
enforcing. with  greater  exactness,  some  rites  or  other  of  reli- 
gion. All  other  people  have  laid  the  foundations  of  civil 
freedom  in  severer  manners,  and  a  system  of  a  more  austere 
and  masculine  morality.".  To  absolve  the  State,  which  is  the 
society  of  rights,  from  a  strict  responsibility  to  the  Author 
and  Source  of  justice  and  of  law,  is  to  destroy  the  firmest  se- 
curity of  public  ortier,  to  convert  liberty  into  license,  and  to 
impregnate  the  very  being  of  the  commonwealth  with  the 
seeds  of  dissolution  and  decay.  France  failed,  because  France 
forgot  God ;  and  if  we  tread  in  the  footsteps  of  that  infatu- 
ated people,  and  treat  with  equal  contempt  the  holiest  in- 
stincts of  our  nature,  we,  too,  may  be  abandoned  to  our  folly, 
and  become  the  hissing  and  the  scorn  of  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth.  "Be* wise,  now,  therefore,  0  ye  kings!  be  in- 
structed, ye  judges  of  the  enrth !  Kiss  the  Son,  lest  He  be 
angry,  and  ye  perish  from  the  way,  when  His  wrath  is  kindled 
but  a  little.  Blessed  are  all  they  that  put  their  trust  in 
Him." 

In  the  third  place,  let  us  endeavor  rightly  to  interpret  the 
reverses  which  have  attended  our  arms.  It  is  idle  to  make 
light  of  them — they  are  serious,  they  are  disastrous.  The 
whole  end  of  Providence  in  any  dispensation  it  were  presump- 
tuous for  any  one,  independently  of  a  special  revelation,  to 
venture  to  decipher.  But  there  are  tendencies  which  lie  upon 
the  surface,  and  these  obvious  tendencies  ar$  designed  for  our 
guidance  and  instruction.  .la  the  present  case,  we  may  hum- 
bly believe  that  out  purpose  aiuiod  at  Las  beea  to  rebuke  our 


14.  Our  Banger  and  our  Duty. 

confidence  and  our  pride.  We  had  begun  to  despise  our  en- 
emy, aud  to  prophesy  safety  without  much  hazard.  We  had 
laughed  at  his  cowardice,  and  boasted  of  our  superior  prowess 
"and  skill.  Is  it  strange  that,  while  indulging  such  a  temper, 
we  ourselves  should  be  made  to  turn  our  backs,  and  to  become 
a  jest  to  those  whom  we  had  jeered?  We  had  grown  licen-- 
tious,  intemperate  and  profane;  is  it  strange  that,  in  the-midst 
of  our  security,  God  should  teach  us  that  sin  is  a  reproach  to 
any  people?  Is  it  strange  that  He  should  remind  us  of  the 
moral  conditions  upon  which  alone  we  are  authorized  to  hope 
for  success?  The  first  lesson,  therefore,  is  one  of  rebuke  and 
repentance.  It  is  a  call  to  break  off  our  sins  by  righteous- 
ness, and  to  turn  our  eyes  to  the  real  secret  of  national  secu- 
rity and  strength. 

The  second  end  may  be  one  of  trial.  God  has  placed  us  in 
circumstances  in  which,  if  we  show  that  we  are  equal  to  the 
emergency,  all  will*  acknowledge  our  right  to  the  freedom 
which  we  have  so  signally  vindicated.  We  have  now  the  op- 
portunity for  great  exploits.  We  can  now  demonstrate  to  the 
world  what  manner  of  spirit  we  are  of.  If  our  courage  and 
faith  rise  superior  to  the  danger,  we '  shall  not  only  succeed, 
but  we  shall  succeed  with  a  moral  influence  and  character  that 
shall  render  our  success  doubly  valuable.  Providence  seemed 
to  be  against  us — disaster  upon  disaster  attended  our  arms — ■ 
the  enemy  is  in  possession  of  three  States,  and  beleaguers  us 
in  all  our  coasts.  His  resources  and  armaments  are  immense, 
and  his  energy  and  resolution  desperate.  His  numbers  are  so 
much  superior,  that  we  are  like  a  flock  of  kids  before  him. 
We  have  nothing  to  stand  on  but  the  eternal  principles  of 
truth  and  right,  aud  the  protection  and  alliance  of  a  just  God. 
Can  we  look- the  danger  unflinchingly  in  the  face,  and  calmly- 
resolve  to  meet  it  aod  tiubdue  it?     Can  we  say,  in  reliaaoe 


Our  Danger  and  our  Duty.  15 

upon  Providence,  that,  were  his  numbers  and  resources  a 
thousand  fold  greater,  the  interests  at  stake  are  so  momentous, 
that  we  will  mot  be  conquered?  Do  we  feel  the  moral  power 
of  courage,  of  resolution,  of  heroic  will,  rising  and  swelling 
within  us  until  it  towers  above  all  the  smoke  and  dust  of  the 
invasion?  Then  we  are  in  a  condition  to  do  great  deeds. 
We  are  in  the  condition  of  Greece  when  Xerxes  hung  upon 
the  borders  of  Attica  with  an  army  of  five  millions  that  had 
never  been  conquered,  and  to  which  State  after  State  of  North- 
ern Greece  had  yielded  in  its  progress.  Little  Athens  was 
the  object  of  hrs  vengeance.  Leonidas  had  fallen — four  days 
more  would  bring  the  destroyer  to  the  walls  of  the  devoted 
city.  There  the  people  were,  a  mere  handful.  Their  first 
step  had  been  to  consult  the  gods,  and  the  astounding  reply 
which  they  received  from  Delphi  would  have  driven  any  other 
people  to  desrJair.  "  Wretched  men!"  said  the  oracle,  which 
they  believed  to  be  infallible,  "why  sit  ye  there?  Quit  your 
land  and  city,  and  flee  afar!  Head,  body,  feet  and  hands  are 
alike  rotten ;  fire  and  sword,  in  the  train  of  the  Syrian  cha- 
riot, shall  overwhelm  you;  nor  ouly  your  city,  but  other  cities 
also,  as  well  as  many  even  of  the  temples  of  the  gods,  which 
are  now  sweating  and  trembling  with  fear,  and  foreshadow,  by 
drops  of  blood  on  their  roofs,  the  hard  calamities  impending. 
Get  ye  away  from  the  sanctuary,  with  your  souls  steeped  in 
sorrow."  .  We  have  had  reverses,  but  no  such  oracle  as  this. 
It  was  afterward  modified  so  as  to  give  a  ray  of  hope,  in  an 
ambiguous  allusion  to  wooden  walls.  But  the  soul  of  the 
Greek  rose  with  the  danger,  and  we  have  a  succession  of 
events,  from  the  desertion  of  Athens  to  the  final  expulsion  of 
the  invader,  which  make  that  little  spot  of  earth  immortal. 
Let  us  imitate,  in  Christian  faith,  this  sublime  example.  -L.et- 
our  epirit  be  loftier  than  that  of  the  pagaa  Greek,  an($  wc  ^__ 


•    16  Our  Danger  and  our  Duty. 

succeed  in  making  every  pass  a  Thermopylae,  every  strait  a 
Salami's,  and  every  plain  a  Marathon.  We  can  conquer,  and 
we  must.  We  must  not  suffer  any  other  thought  to  enter  our 
minds.  If  we  are  overrun,  we  can  at  least  die;  aud  if  our 
enemies  get  possession  of  our  land,  we  can  leave  it  a  howling 
desert.  But,  under  God,  we  shall  net  fail.  If  we  are  true  to 
Him,  and  true  to  ourselves,  a  glorious  future  is  before  us. 
We  occupy  a  sublime  position.  The  eyes  of  the  world  are 
upon  us;  we  are  a  spectacle  to  God,  to  angels  and  to  men. 
Can  our  hearts  grow  faint,  or  our  hands  feeble,  in  a  cause  like 
this?  The  spirits  of  our  fathers  call  to  us  from  their  graves. 
The  heroes  of  other  ages  and  other  countries  are  beckoning  us 
on  to  glory.  Let  us  seize  the  opportunity,  and  make  to  our- 
selves ah  immortal  name,  while  we  redeem  a  land  from  bond- 
age aud  a  continent  from  ruin.  .     • 

Soldiers'  Tract  Association  of  the  M.  E.  CKurch,  South. 


